1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a head suspension assembly incorporated in a recording disk drive such as a hard disk drive (HDD). In particular, the invention relates to a head suspension assembly comprising a head slider supporting at least a read element, and a head suspension supporting the head slider at the tip end.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The concept of so-called COS (Chip On Suspension) is well known in the technical field of a hard disk drive (HDD). The COS utilizes a so-called head IC (Integrated Circuit) chip fixed on a head suspension. The head IC chip incorporates a read signal processing circuit and a write signal processing circuit.
The head IC chip can be located closer to a read element and/or a write element on the head slider based on the COS. Wirings or lead wires can be shortened between the read element and the head IC chip as well as between the write element and the head IC chip. The stray capacitance of the lead wire can be reduced. The reduction of the stray capacitance serves to realize the operation of reading and writing information data at a higher frequency bandwidth.
However, the head IC chip generates a large amount of heat energy. The heat causes changes in the mechanical properties, such as a spring constant, the shape, and the like, of the head suspension. For example, if the spring constant of the head suspension decreases, the head slider supported on the tip end of the head suspension suffers from reduction in the flying height. The head slider is likely to collide against a magnetic recording disk.